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20.109(S14):Microbiome summary
- 1 Overview
- 2 Logistics
- 3 Content Guidelines
The primary assignment for Module 1 will consist of two elements: an abstract that succinctly describes your bird microbiota investigation, and a thorough summary of your data in figures and supporting text – including context for understanding the work's broader implications.
The target audience for this report is a scientifically literate reader who is unfamiliar with your specific field. Thus, you can assume rapid comprehension – but not a priori knowledge – of technical information, and consequently should strive to present your work in a logical, step-by-step fashion.
You will complete this assignment in pairs. Be sure to review the 20.109 statement on collaboration and integrity as you proceed.
Method of Submission
Please submit your completed summary on Stellar, with filename TeamColor _LabSection_Mod1.pdf (for example, Rainbow_TR_Mod1.pdf).
Be sure to review the class late policy (link) as well as the further clarification below.
Submit First Draft: March 11th/12th
Revised to Friday, March 12th at 1 PM for both sections.
The first draft of your research article is due by 11 am on March 11th (Tuesday) or March 12th (Wednesday), according to which day you have lab.
Professor Runstadler will comment on your submissions and assign them a draft grade. Additionally, a writing instructor will give feedback about abstract structure and comprehensibility.
Submit Revision: April 3rd/4th
Revised to Friday, April 4th at 1 PM for both sections.
Your commented first draft will be returned on March 20th (Thursday) or 21st (Friday). (Revised to Friday, March 21st for both sections.) You will then have the opportunity to revise your report for up to a one and one-third letter grade improvement. In other words, a C can be revised up to a B+, a C+ to an A-, a B- to an A, etc. )
The final draft is due by 11 am on April 3rd (Thursday) or April 4th (Friday), according to which day you have lab.
Please briefly summarize any substantial revisions to your text in the "notes" section of the slide. (For example, "this slide was substantially revised to clarify the figure and deepen the analysis.) In addition, you may directly highlight revisions to your text – for example, by using a different colored font – when this approach seems useful.
Late Policy Clarification
Penalties for a late draft are direct. A late draft that is not revised will have the penalized grade recorded. For example, a B paper that is one day late and not revised will be recorded as a B-. If submitted on time, the B paper could go up to an A+, while the penalized B- paper can go up "only" to an A.
Penalties for a late revision affect the maximum possible grade. A revision that is one day late can only go up one full letter grade, one that is two days late can only increase by two-thirds of a letter grade, etc. For example, a B paper that is not late can earn up to an A+, that is one day late can earn an A, that is two days late can earn an A-, that is three days late can earn a B+, and that is four days late cannot improve on the B.
Guidelines on Formatting and Length
We recommend that you prepare your document in a drawing program such as PowerPoint, using a portrait rather than landscape layout. This approach will allow you to create your figures with minimal hassle but maintain the look of a document rather than a presentation.
Document length should be about 16-20 pages. Please take this number with a grain of salt, as we have not evaluated this particular assignment/format on this topic before. Though somewhat variable, typical section lengths (including both text and figures) might be:
- Title page: 1 page
- Abstract: 1 page
- Background and motivation: ~2 pages
- Data presentation and interpretation: ~10-14 pages
- Implications and future work: ~2 pages
The first page of the document should include an informative title and author information (section/color/names); the second page should include just an abstract. A typical context page will be enhanced by a supporting figure, though some might include only text. Context pages may include a mix of narrative text and bullets – whatever helps you express yourself most clearly and concisely. A typical data page should include a figure or two, each with associated caption, and a few bullet points/short blocks of text interpreting that piece of data. (Reminder: Your figure captions themselves should avoid interpretation.) More detailed suggestions for content (as opposed to style) are below.
Content Guidelines
Begin by reading the general guidelines for scientific writing. In particular, the sections on Title, Abstract, Figures, and Holistic View of Data are particularly applicable to this assignment.
A few prompts to get you started are below, but note that this list is not exhaustive and also that several elements could reasonably be included in either the data section or the conclusions section.
Background and motivation: guiding questions
Please include a few references in this section.
- What is the context of the study that you are presenting? Can you convince your reader that your specific study relates to broader questions or a bigger picture that this research might help clarify? In other words, why is this research interesting?
- For Module 1, you may wish to focus on the microbiome, the host/microbe relationship, ecology and host interaction with the environment, another aspect, or some combination of these topics that you think will intrigue your reader. Keep in mind, you have little space to motivate your work and you need to catch the reader's attention.
- Are there some unanswered questions a step below the big picture that this type of work could help answer? What sort of result would be a clear step forward in understanding how microbial communities vary between birds of a different species or sex? Are there some types of changes that have been tested experimentally or examined in natural populations in prior studies that shed light on your expectations? Are human studies relevant to this work? Studies in poultry?
- As you bring the reader closer to your specific study, can you clearly and succinctly describe what aspects of the microbiota you have examined, and how you have applied this information to draw conclusions in your experiment/analysis?
- What were your expectations at the outset of the experiment? (Be sure you've clearly explained your hypothesis.) Would your introduction benefit from a brief summary of your (and the class's as a whole) results? Do these contrast with your expectations?
Data: suggested figures and guiding questions
Throughout this section, you may focus first on your team sample (and associated 16 sequences), and then branch out to discussing the contributions of "[our] colleagues." In the construction/experimental phase (PCR gel, cloning), you may focus mostly on your own samples and treat the class-wide samples briefly. In the evaluation/analysis phase, you should most thoroughly assess your own samples but also treat the class-wide samples in substantial detail. More guidance is provided below.
Note: Keep in mind that we will hold off on practicing a proper methods section until the second module. In this assignment, figure captions and/or supporting text should include only the most relevant aspects of the methods, such as the sample identities and analysis choices.
Experimental overview
- Schematic: Overall experimental plan and main steps involved
Recall that our collaboration and integrity guidelines state that your text and figures must be your own unless otherwise specified. Thus, you should all make your own schematic rather than modifying one from class slides or the wiki. Keep in mind that you are being evaluated not on advanced PowerPoint skills, but instead on showing that you understand the purpose and major steps of the experiment and can convey them. You may prepare something similar to schematics presented in class, but remember that your goal should be to make a figure tailored specifically to this assignment and audience. What elements might be cut or added? How can you modify the figure to best highlight key takeaways?
Preparatory phase of experiment
- Figure: Gel from initial PCR
- Potential schematic: Cloning plan
What was the purpose of any data you collected during this phase and what valuable information was established? Include the role of controls when applicable.
You can briefly establish DNA recovery and colony count results without belaboring them. (No huge tables needed.)
Analysis phase of experiment
The following tables/figures are required:
- Table: Species summary table for you and your partner's samples (similar to Excel table that you made but more simple/including just the key elements)
- Figure: MEGA phylogenetic tree for each of 9 gulls (up to 24 sequences each)
- one of these you have contributed to, and the rest are taken from the wiki as is
- Figure: Composite phylogenetic trees for each unique species/sex combination (3 trees total: male RBG, female RBG, male HG)
You may include other table(s) or figures that summarize interesting individual or class-wide findings, such as:
- Excerpt of your MEGA sequence alignment, such as an area with many substitutions
- Class-wide species table in some high-level form
- Composite tree comparisons across one parameter (e.g., in 2 trees: all male birds versus all female birds)
- Composite phylogenetic tree across all 9 gulls (1 tree total)
- UniFrac comparisons – this analysis requires re-doing the trees in MEGA to be rooted rather than unrooted, or otherwise adding a root, as only the former format is accepted by UniFrac
- Your brilliant idea here!
The guiding questions below may give you further ideas for developing both figures and associated text. Feel free to include a few references in this section if they are relevant to your claims.
- How might you highlight differences and similarities between bacterial species identities found in two or more distinct bird populations? Consider a Venn diagram.
- How might you highlight differencess and similarities between bacterial species frequencies found in two or more distinct bird populations? Consider a color-coded bar chart that depicts species frequency found in each population. Pie charts that show percent abundance could also be useful.
- For each composite (multi-gull) tree representing a given population, consider whether individual gull samples are evenly distributed among species and/or higher-level branches or not.
- How do the topologies of the trees differ, both intra-species and inter-species (or sex)? Consider how many major clusters each tree has and how far apart they are.
- If you create one comprehensive tree for all gulls, do you gain any further insights about the relatedness of bacteria in the different populations?
- What hypotheses can you present for why certain bacteria are shared among populations and why certain bacteria are unique to a specific population? What further experiments can you propose to test these hypotheses? Are the primary functions of any of these bacteria in the gut already known?
- Given the limitations of defining to the species level, what patterns (if any) do you see at higher order levels such as family or phyla? Can you think of possible specific reasons for these patterns related to the disparate environmental conditions for the two species (from two nearby but distinct locations) or sexes?
- What aspects of your data/findings might you expect to be different, and which the same, if the sample size were increased?
Implications and future work: guiding questions
Be sure to keep this section focused and brief – don't lose your reader in speculation that is too wild or tangential. Some of the questions below can be addressed in just a couple of sentences, while others you may want to devote more time to. Overall, consider these prompts a starting point for your thinking rather than a set of boxes to check off.
- Your experiment in this module was focused on a specific question and hypothesis. Now let's return to the 'big picture' questions of disease ecology, some of which you may have introduced in the Background & Motivation section. Discuss the implications of your data in the context of disease ecology and suggest new questions that arise from your experiment.
- In some ways, our protocol for this experiment was constrained by the time we have to complete the module and to do an analysis, as well as by financial resources for the class. Are there ways you would suggest to improve the procedures while staying with the same general approach? Is there a different method that would be better if given the time and finances?
- Based on the results, whether they matched your expectations or not, what experiments would you want to follow-up with? Follow-up experiments could distinguish between competing explanations of a given outcome or broaden the sample set for a question you already asked, to give just two examples. What might be the most important thing to know next about this system? How might you investigate the reasons for some of the differences you observed?
- How might knowledge of the bacterial communities that you studied influence other areas of research that might be proposed with these same birds? Or more generally, how does knowledge about any animal's gut bacterial community influence other areas of research? Do your findings have implications for wildlife management? Is there another system in which the same approach would be particularly useful?
- An ultimate outcome of this work would be the ability to describe the composition of the microbial community in a given animal/environment precisely, and then to understand why one differs from another. How might you apply this knowledge? Are there implications for public health or for an application that is not too far-fetched?


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VIDEO: Emmy Nominations Shock Fans
Friday, July 14, 2017
On Thursday the released Emmy nominations surprised everyone when many shows thought to be shoe-ins got left out of the running. The variety talk series category left out favorites such as The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. However, all was forgiven when America's favorite nerdy girl Barb Holland from Stranger Things, played by Shannon Purser, made her glorious return with a Emmy nomination in the guest drama actress category. Make sure to tune in Sunday, September 17 to see who takes home an Emmy this year.

subset: commoncrawl


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Scenes and Bites from the Hot Bread Kitchen Night Market
Hot Bread Kitchen, the non-profit women's baking collective in East Harlem, opened the doors of La Marqueta last night for a celebration of food, the people who make it, and an uptown spirit that's all about supporting growth while respecting tradition. Hot Bread Kitchen and its incubator program are the leading force behind revitalizing one of New York's market icons. Dating back to the 1930s, La Marqueta's heyday in the '50s and '60s saw as many as 500 vendors in a collection of five buildings under the Metro North tracks.
Today there's just one building and a more intimate group of vendors, but that hasn't stopped them from supplying uptown Manhattan with an awesome array of groceries and specialty food as diverse as the surrounding community. That includes Hot Bread Kitchen, which bakes some of the city's finest bread—everything from rye to lavash to tortillas —all made by a staff of low-income and immigrant women and men who join as part of a training program that can include learning English and the tricks of the restaurant trade.
We got to try several of Hot Bread Kitchen's breads at the night market, along with an impressive array of bites from La Marqueta's other vendors, many of which operate under the HBK Incubates program for kitchen space. And we got to watch some of that bread get made; to wit, Top Chef's Gail Simmons learning how to make m'smen, a flaky Moroccan flatbread, from one of the Hot Bread Kitchen baking staff.
Hot Bread Kitchen expects to be financially self-sufficient by 2014, but for now still is partially reliant on donations to supplement their sales at Greenmarkets, local stores, and their cafe in the La Marqueta space. But if the night showed us anything, it's that we could all afford to visit La Marqueta more than we do.
"It'd be great to see crowds like this up here more often," remarked Dorie Greenspan, whose new bakery Beurre & Sel rents kitchen space in the market. If Jessamyn Rodriguez and her team at Hot Bread Kitchen get their way, that might very well be something we can look forward to.
Take a look in the slideshow »
Hot Bread Kitchen at La Marqueta
1590 Park Avenue, New York NY 10029 (map)
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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We also offer the option to switch from your design and creation suite subscription to an industry collection, giving you access to more tools at a comparable price.
Subscribers to Building Design Suite, Entertainment Creation Suite, Infrastructure Design Suite, Factory Design Suite, Plant Design Suite, and Product Design Suite can choose to renew their subscription or maintenance plan.
How to renew
Our new industry collections offer a broad selection of the most essential Autodesk software for your work, plus access to several cloud services for one reasonable price.
One essential set of BIM tools for building design, civil infrastructure, and construction
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Industry collections provide access to more software and services than suites, providing you value that well exceeds a premium suite at a very competitive price point.
We've made it easier for you to determine which offering is right for you. All of your essential software tools are in one of 3 industry collections, rather than across more than 6 suites, each with multiple editions.
You'll always have access to the latest software, with simple control over updates and access, a unified procurement cycle, and easier license management.
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PORTLAND— Karen Willis always wanted a winter wedding with plenty of snow.
Willis got her wish Saturday when she married Gregory Beal at Grace Restaurant on Chestnut Street at about 2:30 p.m.
A blizzard and a wedding is a bit of a family tradition, she said Sunday in a telephone interview.
Her parents, Dr. John and Lois Willis, were married Dec. 19, 1970, the day after a record-setting 22.8 inches of snow fell in Portland. That record still stands as the biggest snowfall in December in Maine's largest city, according to the National Weather Service in Gray.
"I grew up looking at my parents' wedding pictures and all that snow," Willis said. "I've always wanted that. I'd hoped we'd get a few inches. I never imagined it would turn into the biggest storm of my lifetime."
The Portland Jetport reported receiving 31.9 inches of snow in the blizzard, a record, according to the weather service. Not only did the storm dump more than two feet of snow in much of the state, it also brought 55-mph winds to Portland.
"Before we went to the restaurant, we wanted to have some pictures taken outside, so we went to Spring Point Light," Willis said. "There was snow and ice everywhere and I thought I was going to get blown away. It felt like I was in a hurricane."
Willis, 32, and Beal, 36, who live in Manchester, N.H., became engaged in October. They met online through the website Christian Mingle, she said.
The blizzard did prevent some cousins and friends from attending the wedding, but more than 80 of the 120 people who had said they were coming were able to make it.
"Direct family members were able to beat the storm and all arrived by Friday morning, but numerous flights and road trips were canceled," Willis said. "Guests from Colorado and California had their flights canceled before the snow even started and there was no other way to Maine, since even the trains from Boston were not running Friday afternoon."
At least one member of the wedding party arrived on the last flight allowed to land Friday morning at the Portland Jetport before the airport shut down.
Matron of honor Lisa Domino of Brooklyn, N.Y., arrived by train Thursday evening and best man Christopher Beal of Wilton, N.H., was able to arrive ahead of the storm.
The only person who did not make it to the wedding was the disc jockey the couple had hired from Boston. Gov. Deval Patrick issued a travel ban from about 2 p.m. Friday to 4 p.m. Saturday.
"He was stopped twice by the Massachusetts state police and they threatened to arrest him," Willis said. "But he called a DJ contact in Portland and he came for us and was wonderful."
Willis, who plans to change her name to Beal, said that her family knows what is to blame for the winter weather that has impacted marriage ceremonies for two generations.
"It's the dress's fault," she said. "I had my mom's wedding dress modified, so we decided that had to be what made it snow for both our weddings."
Willis and Beal were scheduled Sunday to fly out of Logan Airport for their honeymoon in Switzerland and Austria.
"We really do love the snow," she said.
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KENNESAW, Ga. (Nov. 8, 2007) - The ETSU women's soccer team fell to the Kennesaw State Owls in the Atlantic Sun Semifinals at KSU Soccer Complex on Thursday night. The Bucs close out their season with a 11-6-3 record while the Owls improve to 16-3-0.
Kennesaw State got on the board early as Maylee Attin-Johnson broke through the defense on a pass from Beth Meadors and was able to put the ball in the net over keeper Rachel Van Horn (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) during the 13th minute of play.
The Owls gave themselves a 2-0 advantage when Caitlin Dingle scored off a ball knocked down inside the box during the 20th minute.
In the second period the Bucs continued to battle but were unable to convert against the Owl defense.
"Kennesaw did a great job and they took advantage of the mistakes that we made. We created some opportunities but we weren't able to convert on them," said head coach Heather Henson. "I'm very proud of the team and of their performance not just this weekend but this entire season. They never gave up and gave it all they had all season long. We came to the tournament on a mission and while we didn't complete that mission they have taken the steps to start moving in the right direction."
Junior Katie Green (Knoxville, Tenn.) led the way offensively for the Bucs with two shots while Kelly Brinkman (Clearwater, Fla.) and senior Hannah Johnson (Soddy-Daisy, Tenn.) each contributed a shot on goal.
The Bucs end their season breaking two team records and tying another while the season also saw one individual record go down. The 2007 ETSU Bucs dished at a program high 34 assists and 110 points. ETSU also recorded six shutouts on the year, which ties them with 2003 and 2004 squads. Individually Green broke the single season assist record with 10, a record that was previously set by Erin Ashton in 2005 with eight.
Keep up with ETSU women's soccer throughout the year by visiting www.ETSUBucs.com.


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District Attorney Will Furse fulfilled a campaign promise last week, establishing the 22nd Judicial District's first standing grand jury.
Last fall on the campaign trail, Furse spoke of better community involvement and input from his constituents if elected. He took office in January and last week sought out to realize his guarantee by impaneling the district's first known grand jury.
"A grand jury is sorely needed, and was sorely needed," Furse said, "not only to fulfill my desire for community justice, but I also think there's a constitutional mandate for grand juries."
State law mandates that any judicial district with a population of more than 50,000 must impanel a grand jury. Jurisdictions under that population threshold have the option of establishing a grand jury. Furse said he decided to launch a grand jury to help alleviate any public concern regarding the sole discretion he has as the district attorney in filing criminal charges.
"Some people could think a judge and a district attorney have too much power when determining probable cause in a case," Furse said. "The community voiced their concerns over this minimally checked discretion, so I was excited to have the first standing grand jury in the district's history."
The 22nd Judicial District is comprised of both Montezuma and Dolores counties, and top law enforcement officials in both counties said they were in favor of the grand jury system.
Dolores County Sheriff Jerry Martin said that a grand jury is more likely to ascertain more details involved in a criminal case than what's made available in a lower court's preliminary hearing.
"I think it's a good move for the people," Martin said.
Montezuma County Sheriff Dennis Spruell. "I think it's a wonderful thing."
Twelve ordinary citizens and four alternates were listed to the grand jury. Serving a 12-month appointment, the grand jurors are a diverse cross-section of the community, representative of both Dolores and Montezuma counties.
"The grand jurors are not lawyers," Furse said. "They are not professionals involved with the legal system. They are just regular members of the community."
Meeting in secret, grand juries serve independent from both prosecution and defense attorneys as well as independent from judges. Able to subpoena witnesses, gather evidence and compel testimony, grand juries have a large scope of investigative techniques that sometimes are not available to even law enforcement, Furse said.
"The grand jury, while it's secret, directly involves the community, and they have an active stake in the proceedings," Furse said. "They are a separate body that investigates possible criminal activity and establish if there is probable cause to hand out indictments."
Grand juries are a great tool when handling capital cases like murder or sexual assault as well as high-profile felony cases involving public corruption, Furse added.
Within the 22nd Judicial District, a lower court judge, via a preliminary hearing, has historically been used to determine whether probable cause exists to bind a felony case over to a district judge.
The grand jury process, however, starts with witnesses provided by the district attorney. A court reporter ensures the proceedings are recorded, and a bailiff safeguards evidence. While the district attorney is involved with the grand jury process, Furse said he would only serve as a guide to present the basic framework of the case.
"The jurors are not beholden to the district attorney, and there's no judge," Furse explained. "The grand jury asks direct questions of the witnesses."
Montezuma County Court Judge Jennilynn Lawrence, who presides over preliminary hearings, was not able to comment on the new grand jury system, according to a court clerk.
During grand jury deliberations, nine jurors are needed for a quorum and only nine must agree that there is probable cause to hand out a true bill, or deliver an indictment.
"Grand juries don't establish doubt beyond a reasonable doubt; rather they determine if it's more likely than not that a crime was committed," Furse said.


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I've been using BING for many years with great success.
However I recently upgraded to an ASUS P8P67 Pro motherboard and since then My USB mouse doesn't work in BING.
If anyone has the same set up I have and it works, please let me know. Perhaps I can then resolve this issue.


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Recent Board Appointments
On September 17, 2019, ECA Board members Benjamin Bote, Rob Kerr, Brenda Shaw, Marvin Potts, and Lynnette Purvis voted unanimously to appoint Ann Billington and Samira Al-Qazzaz as interim members of the Board.
Ann will assume the duties of Architectural chairperson, which was recently vacated by Brian Maker. Samira will serve as needed, since there are no more social functions during the remainder of the year.
About Evergreen Commons Assoication
Evergreen is a mix of modern Strengs. The majority being single family homes, and a little more than one third being half-plexes.
Center to Evergreen Commons is our 3 acre private park. Here we enjoy three swimming pools, barbeques, a basketball court, a children's play area, large green lawns, and a walking path that figure-eights through it all. This "Park Green" is a real showpiece that enhances the unique homes surrounding it.
Our park is our Association's gathering place for various social events during Sacramento's long fair weather season. We hold an annual Easter Egg Hunt, a Fourth of July Pool Party and Barbeque, and an Ice Cream Social or two during the warm months.
Evergreen Commons is located in the unincorporated Sacramento County community of Arden-Arcade, more precisely in an area once referred to as Arcade Park. Arcade Park was known as "the Pasadena of Northern California" when land was being sold for development in the early 20th century. This may have been an influence in naming the main street through our community, Pasadena Avenue. Now into the 21st century, we are a well established, quiet and safe neighborhood.
Thanks for visiting.


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Hundreds of North Side residents are asking their alderman, Joe Moore, to publicly oppose the opening of future charter schools in Chicago's 49th ward.
On Sunday night, the residents gathered at the Willye White Field House to discuss several issues, including charter schools. The Northside POWER group, which hosted the meeting, invited Moore, but spokeswoman Kristi Sanford said Moore told the group he was out of town.
When reached by phone late Sunday night, Moore, who was attending the National League of Cities meeting in Washington D.C., said he would not likely ever entirely oppose future charter schools in his ward, although he did vote in support of a moratorium on charter school expansion for the 2014-2015 school year, as Chicago Public Schools proposes to close more than 100 schools.
Sandford said the resolution doesn't mean much, because it is non-binding.
"We've been talking to (Moore) all week," Sanford said. "He supports the moratorium, but he has the opportunity to make a commitment to us publicly. However, he has yet to make that commitment."
Because of Moore's absence at the meeting, hundreds of people, spanning blocks, marched to Moore's house several blocks away, planting 582 small, yellow flags in his yard. The number of flags represented the number of students currently enrolled at Stephen F Gale Elementary School who would have been affected had the Chicago Public Schools not recently taken Gale off its potential closure list.
Moore said a long waiting list at the Chicago Math and Science Academy in his ward means some parents feel the schools have been successful. Some parents also feel that the public school options available to them aren't sufficient, he said.
Moore said he wants his residents – at all income levels – to have the opportunity to send their children to an excellent school. He said with more quality charter schools that could be more likely to happen.
"Who am I to say to a low-income family that: 'You know what, just wait, maybe someday the schools in my neighborhood will improve to the point where you feel comfortable sending your child there,' " Moore said. "Why shouldn't they have the same kind of options for their kids that middle income and upper income families have in my community?"
North Side residents at the public meeting said having competing schools would only segregate students further.
"Education is not a business," Bridget Harris, one of the group's founding leaders said. "Our children should not be treated like bags of potato chips or soap. Our children are not for sale."
This school year, UNO Charter Schools Network opened a K-8 charter school in the historic St. Scholastica Academy building in the Rogers Park neighborhood. When UNO signed a lease with the Benedictine Sisters of Chicago to open the elementary school last summer, Chief Executive Juan Rangel told the Tribune: "Rogers Park is a community we know, and it's a place we want to be. We're not going to allow political agendas to get in the way of what we're trying to do."
Some North Side residents believe that having more charter schools could mean fewer resources for public schools. They also worry that without union affiliation, teachers and parents would have less voice in their students' education. For some parents, charter schools aren't an option because in some cases, they're too expensive, Harris said.
Samantha Wright, a Rogers Park mother of three and a full-time college student, had enrolled her children in Passages Charter School after they had trouble with bullies at Gale. She had to pull them out, she said, because the cost of sending them to the charter was too great.
"I had to pay $325 a year for them to go there," Wright said, the total she paid for all three children.
Now, a frustrated Wright said, her children are back at Gale.
Moore said that with future charter schools, it might be possible for more lower-income students to attend. Becky Carroll, chief communications officer for CPS, said charter schools don't cost more to attend. Additionally, the fee Wright referred to at the meeting Sunday night is a $75 annual fee per student, that goes toward things such as field trips and science fairs, Patricia Yadgir, vice president of School Programs for American Quality Schools said. She also pointed out that Passages offers assistance to some students who needs help paying the fee.
Latest Breaking News
Wright said she wants to send her kids to a quality, affordable, bully-free school where she has a say in their education.
"(Gale) would be a lot better if it had better resources," Wright said. "We live in a neighborhood where a lot of people are poor and are just getting by."
Twitter: @ellenjeanhirst


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By Mark Jewell
AP Personal Finance Writer
BOSTON (AP) -- Are there guns in your investment portfolio?
It's an issue that some politicians and gun-control advocates are raising after recent mass shootings prompted calls for tougher laws.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel wrote letters to six mutual fund companies asking them to sell their stock in gun manufacturers Smith & Wesson, and Sturm, Ruger & Co. It's a critical concern in Chicago, where more than 500 people were murdered last year.
Fund companies should "send a clear and unambiguous message to the entire gun industry that investors will no longer support companies that profit from gun violence," Emanuel wrote in his recent letters.
Other city leaders, including those in Los Angeles and Philadelphia, are considering similar steps with their pension funds.
Gun control is the kind of issue that can wake investors up to the fact that money in a fund portfolio or 401(k) affects more than just their retirement security. The financial markets support all kinds of companies, including many that an investor may believe aren't contributing to the greater good.
But whatever one thinks about gun control, removing such an investment from a portfolio on moral grounds isn't always a simple matter. There are potential costs from putting your principles before profits.
Recognize that over the last 10 years Smith & Wesson has posted an average annualized return of 17 percent, compared with the 8 percent return of the broader market. Similarly, Sturm Ruger, the largest publicly traded gun company, has returned an annualized 23 percent over that time. The vast majority of gun manufacturers are privately held.
Legal Hurdles
There would be other potential costs if fund companies or 401(k) managers were to sell gun maker stocks in response to the recent controversy. These companies have obligations to serve the financial interests of vast numbers of individual fund shareholders and plan participants with varying opinions about guns.
For employers sponsoring 401(k) plans, their hands can be tied unless the plan established a mandate to avoid investing in gun makers, says Kathleen McBride, founder of consulting firm FiduciaryPath.
She advises financial professionals who are fiduciaries, a legal designation requiring them to act in the best financial interests of their clients. That obligation is a chief concern cited by Vanguard, among the six fund companies that Emanuel is pressuring. A Vanguard spokeswoman said mutual funds "are not optimal agents to address social change."
A spokesman for American Funds, which also received a letter from Emanuel, said: "If social issues may have an effect on the investment potential of a company, we take those issues into account as part of the investment process."
For example, a stock fund manager might expect that gun laws are likely to become more restrictive. That would cut into industry sales, leading the manager to conclude that stocks of gun makers are bad long-term investments. Such a fund manager could justify selling such stocks as beneficial for shareholders. But the manager wouldn't be justified in selling simply because of moral objections.
Index Funds
Making changes only gets more complicated with low-cost index funds, which own all the stocks in a given market index.
If such a fund doesn't track the index closely, then it ceases to be an index fund -- no matter whether some of the stocks may be viewed as morally objectionable by some investors.
For example, Vanguard is the biggest manager of index funds, and its $5.4 billion Small-Cap Index Fund (NAESX) is the largest fund owner of Smith & Wesson shares, according to Morningstar.
The fund, a common investment option in 401(k) plans, recently held 1.6 percent of Smith & Wesson's outstanding shares. But that stock made up just 0.04 percent of the fund's total assets, because the fund owns more than 1,000 stocks in the small-company index that it tracks.
In fact, with $2 trillion in assets, Vanguard owns stakes in nearly every publicly traded U.S. company. That's also the case with other large fund companies offering index funds that own hundreds or even thousands of stocks. The more broadly diversified a fund is, the greater the likelihood you'll find something in the portfolio that you dislike.
How to Invest with a Conscience
So how might an investor avoid any links to gun makers in a portfolio?
If you prefer low-cost index investing but don't want to invest in guns, choose funds that track large-company indexes. Smith & Wesson and Sturm Ruger aren't big enough to be included in those large-cap indexes.
If you want active management, check the fund's latest holdings online for any gun stocks. Chances are small that you'll find any, but be aware that the manager could invest in them at some point, unless the fund has a specific mandate to avoid gun makers.
Or, better yet, invest in funds that explicitly avoid certain stocks based on moral criteria. Some larger fund companies, including Vanguard, offer funds that seek to invest based on social objectives. And dozens of smaller companies specialize in socially responsible investing, offering funds that screen out everything from gun- and tobacco-related stocks to companies that charge interest on loans. There are also lower-cost funds that track indexes of stocks limited to those deemed socially responsible.
If you're a 401(k) investor and find that your plan doesn't offer such options, ask your employer to consider adding them.
In the end, know that most mutual funds won't make distinctions between which kinds of investments serve a greater moral good and which don't.
Questions? E-mail email@example.com.
Published: Wed, Feb 20, 2013


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- 1000 Whitlock Ave Nw Ste 300, Marietta, GA 30064
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Jeffry Ave, Jamaica, N.Y.
24 July 1918
Dear Brother Joe:
I neglected to write you for a couple of weeks and ought to be kicked but you will forgive me I know.
Well, at last we are getting good news and the Huns are beginning to feel something new, the American spirit of youth and rightesnous which has never yet tasted the dregs of defeat, and I feel sure that before long Fritz will be back in his own yard, a pretty well licked cur, and when this war is over, the rest of the world will look up to Uncle Sam and his boys and salute them as the saviours of the world and liberty.
John Wulforst is now down in Georgia and will be going "Over There" before long. My old boss, Paymaster Karker, is now on duty in France and has asked me to join him if possible. I am seriously thinking of it and will go if I can arrange things in the Navy Dept for an indefinite leave of absence; I am sure that if I get duty with him it will only be a short time before I get a commission.
This war, as I told you once before is a man's size job and is no skylarking expedition, but I know that when the time comes to show what you are made of, you will show the true American spirit of fearlessness and will do your duty as a real American patriot. I trust that you will distinguish yourself and earn promotion by your valor in a true Spartan manner. Our daily thoughts and prayers are for you, that you may do your duty and that God may decree that you shall come back to us again safe and sound and a better man for having gone through the fire and seen men do things that shows the fibre of which they are made.
I will close now, dear Joe, and trust that when this letter reaches you, it will find you in good health and spirits, and ready to knock hell out of any hun that you run up against.
With love from your father, Madaline, Robert and myself, I am, as ever,
Affectionately yours,
John J.
© Copyright 2011 by Lanny & Patti Brown, All Rights Reserved. No reproduction without permission.


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GSTF Journal of Veterinary Science – JVet is no longer accepting regular submissions. For Further details, please visit the GSTF conferences on Medical Sciences
GSTF Journal of Veterinary Science – JVet Vol.4 No.1
(Print ISSN: 2345-7880, E-periodical: ISSN 2345-7910)
The Global Science and Technology Forum (GSTF) publishes, in print and online, international journals that feature peer-reviewed scholarly articles rigorously selected from conferences and open call for papers. These articles are the end result of scholars' tremendous effort and creativeness in exploring the theory, application, and social implications of diverse frontier research areas in science and technology. GSTF journals are indexed by Ulrichsweb, EconBiz, EBSCO, CrossRef, ProQuest, Cabell's Directories, Index Copernicus,JournalSeek and will be submitted to Zentralblatt MATH, Scopus, ScienceDirect and amongst others, where applicable.
A research paper submitted to GSTF Journal of Veterinary Science (JVet) must be original that are unpublished and cannot be under review for publication elsewhere during the time it is being considered for GSTF Journal of Veterinary Science (JVet). Furthermore, after you submit a paper to GSTF Journal of Veterinary Science (JVet), you must await the response from GSTF Journal of Veterinary Science (JVet) and only resubmit elsewhere if your paper is rejected–or withdrawn at your request–from GSTF Journal of Veterinary Science (JVet).
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For interested Authors who wish to submit their manuscripts to the relevant books, or if you have any queries on our GSTF publications (books & journals), do email us at firstname.lastname@example.com


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Slow Food Springfield announces fifth annual film festival lineup
Send a link to a friend
[January 10, 2014]
SPRINGFIELD — The Slow Food
Springfield Film Festival announces the full film lineup for the
fifth annual festival at Benedictine University Library, 1500 N.
Fifth St., Springfield, on Jan. 25 from 2 to 8:30 p.m.
The Movie" — President's Room auditorium, 2-3:45 p.m.
Exploring a thriving local food movement, this film promotes
bringing good food back to the table and the myriad ways we all
can eat better. It sparks the joy of discovery in creating a
healthy, sustainable model for living and eating well. The movie
will be followed by discussion.
"Food, Inc."
— Classroom L13, 2-3:45 p.m.
Lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing how our
nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of
corporations that often put profits ahead of consumer health,
the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and
our own environment.
"Two Angry
Moms" — President's Room auditorium, 4:15-5:45 p.m.
Takes a look at the toxic food environment found in many of our
nation's schools and served to our children. The film suggests
how to improve and make a difference in both the health of each
child and the long-term health of our country.
"The Future of
Food: A Looming Crisis" — Classroom L13, 4:15-5:45 p.m.
Future wars may be fought specifically over agricultural
resources. This film assesses the potential for a global food
crisis, guiding viewers through issues involving climate change,
oil consumption, biofuel development, fish stock depletion and
other topics.
"Mad City Chickens" —
President's Room auditorium, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
A sometimes serious, sometimes whimsical look at the people who
keep urban chickens in their backyards. From leading experts to
urban newbies, it's a humorous and heartfelt trip through what's
fast becoming an international backyard chicken movement. The
movie will be followed by a panel discussion with local urban
chicken producers.
[to top of second column]
Admission is $7 per person, $5 for Slow Food Springfield
members. Students are admitted free with school ID. Refreshments
and dinner will be provided by 5flavors Catering and available
for purchase 3:45-4:15 p.m. and 5:45-6:30 p.m. For more
information, see
The festival is sponsored by the Slow Food Springfield chapter,
Benedictine University's Green Club and the University of Illinois
Slow Food Springfield focuses on educating people toward a
better, cleaner and fairer world, beginning with what we put on our
plates, and emphasizes how our daily choices determine the future of
the environment, economy and society.
Benedictine University's Green Club raises environmental
awareness on campus with the "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle" campaign as
well as through activities and events on campus and in the
community. The Green Club hosts street cleanup days and has worked
on campus beautification projects.
University of Illinois Extension serves Logan, Menard and
Sangamon counties by providing programs and expertise in local food
systems and small farms, horticulture, and 4-H youth development. U
of I Extension provides educational programs and unbiased,
research-based information to help Illinois residents improve their
quality of life, develop skills and solve problems.
[Text from file received]
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text:
Stop Kids' Brain Drain
You can use these tips and products to keep your kids sharp all summer long.
July 15, 2010 -- Most parents have lots of outdoor activities planned for the summer to keep their kids active. But what about the "brain drain?" Studies estimate that students lose two months of math skills over the summer, and if your child is a reluctant reader, getting them back into the swing of school can be painful for you both.
Luckily, there are plenty of activities and nifty products to keep your kid's brain from melting in the summer heat.
Fat Brain Toy Co., ages 6+
Younger kids who like puzzles and older teens facing geometry class will love this toy. These 24 interlocking "geometry turtles" snap together in more than 100 different ways. It comes with a book of puzzles that are sure to jumpstart math skills. Reptangles teaches kids to visualize the shapes they construct and to rotate them in their mind as they build. Plus, they learn what truncated octahedrons or lesser rhombicuboctahedrons look like -- so there's a bit of a spelling challenge too.
Lots of adults -- more than 20 million -- have already discovered fantasy sports, but summer is a great time for kids to join a league and draft a team. This requires researching averages, problem solving, using statistics and crunching numbers. Participants follow their team throughout the season. To get your kid started, you could grab one of the many magazines that list players' vital stats, and there are free leagues online.
'Secret Ada' by Carlos McEvilly
$2.99, ages 12+, Available on iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch
Secret Ada is an iPad or iPhone app created by a dad for his tween daughter. He wanted to spread the message that math, science and technology are not just for boys -- which is unfortunately a message that a lot of girls get. So not only do kids have to use statistics and logic to decode the cryptograms, breaking the code unlocks the biography of a famous woman scientist or mathematician.
Web Extra Pick: Math Gear Fast Facts
Innovative Kids, ages 7+
These are flash cards all dressed up. Easily totable, these fast fact sets allow kids to quiz themselves on basic multiplication and division by sliding new equations (and their hidden answers) into place along a disc.
Web Takeaway Math Tricks
Incorporate math into chores and travel: For example, calculate how much chlorine needs to go in the pool given the pool's volume or calculate the mileage and estimated travel time of your upcoming trip.
Cooking requires lots of math skills -- fractions, proportions, measurements and counting how many cookies you can eat in an hour.
Secret Science Team Kits
Ectropy, ages 9-12
These kits allow kids to become miniature CSI analysts by combining chemistry and problem-solving with good old-fashioned pretend play. Each kit comes with a case file and the tools to solve a mystery. For example, in one kit, a bike has been stolen and your child has to test to see if the crime scene sample that's provided is red paint or blood. Once your scientist-in-training has analyzed the evidence, he or she can go online to see if the case was successfully cracked.
Heavenly Hair Kit
GiddyUp, ages 8+
The Heavenly Hair Kit is another product great for girls who think science is a "boy's" subject. It's an introduction to doing experiments -- a little biology, a little chemistry, but it's all about hair. They'll find out why hair's curly, why it's red, why we need to wash it (of course that might be a good lesson for the boys to learn, too). It also teaches kids how to make their own shampoo and conditioner -- although you might want to test it out on the family dog before lathering into your own tresses.
More Science
'The Elements: A Visual Exploration' by Theodore Gray
$13.99/$9.99, ages 12+, Available on iPad/iPhone 4
Not only is "The Elements: A Visual Exploration" visually spectacular, with more than 500 images you can rotate and move, it's well-written. There's even the song "The Elements," by Tom Lehrer, which you might remember from your own chemistry class. Ideal for the student who wants to brush up on or get ahead in physics or chemistry -- and have fun at the same time.
Web Extra Pick: The Dangerous Book for Boys (Essential Electronics and Classic Chemistry)
Thames and Kosmos, ages 8+
Based on the popular book, "The Dangerous Book for Boys," these science sets give boys (and girls) classic, hands-on experience with basic scientific principles. For example, in the electronics set, your child can learn to build his or her own circuit board.
Web Extra Pick: The Young Scientists Club
All ages depending on kit
If you have a budding Marie Curie or Albert Einstein at home, The Young Scientists Club is a great way to keep them learning. You can order one kit at a time, or you can order a subscription. Sign up for the kits you want, and you can have them delivered once or twice a month. Kits cover everything from earth sciences (garden kits) to animal science (animal tracking kits) to astronomy.
Web Extra Pick: 'NASA App' by NASA Ames Research Center
Free, Available on iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad
If you've ever wondered what the Cassini spacecraft has been up to since completing its initial mission to Saturn in 2008, the NASA app can tell you. Updated daily, the NASA app is a treasure trove of launch information, telescopic images and galactic news for astronomy enthusiasts.
Workman, ages 10+, good for older kids
Perfect for kids 7 and older, Bananagrams is a fun way to play with words. Think of it as a fast-moving, competitive "Boggle" meets a crossword puzzle, with a dash of "Scrabble." It can be played with only two players or with a group. Kids can hone their spelling and vocabulary skills with this game.
The Sesquipedalian Word Game
Innovative Kids, ages 12+
Sesquipedalian is like charades and "Pictionary" but with definitions of words like tachyphasia (extremely rapid speech). Players have to complete challenges like drawing or acting out the words while other players guess the word. And if your student has a list of vocab words they need to learn over the summer, you can use that list to play the game. Sesquipedalian is great for kids aged 12+ and it comes with other word game suggestions too.
'iAssociate' by Fredrik Wahrman
$1.99, ages 12+, Available on iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch
iAssociate is an addictive word-association game. Players start with one word or topic and then use connotations, synonyms and definitions associated with that word to build a web of words. For example, "movie genres" leads to "thriller" which connects to "Michael Jackson," then to "King of Pop," then "scream," which takes you to another movie genre -- horror.
iAssociate 2 is available for free.
Web Extra Pick: Language Arts Windows
Carson-Dellosa publishing, ages 6+
Younger kids can use these self-checking cards over and over again -- provided you use a dry erase marker rather than a Sharpie. The cards fit in a binder and quiz kids on consonants, vowel sounds, plural endings and the like. It also comes in Math Windows.
Web Extra Pick: 'Words With Friends' by Newtoy, Inc.
Free/$2.99 (ads/ad-free), ages 12+, Available on /iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad
If you like Scrabble, you'll like Words With Friends, a word game that you can play on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch with friends. So if you have a texting, Facebook, Twitter-obsessed teen, this is a great way to get them thinking while they chat online.
Web Takeaway Science Tricks
Plan a treasure hunt with clues and puzzles to analyze and solve.
Chores can be a great way to talk about science: Why is vinegar a surprisingly effective cleaning product? Etc.
A Few More Things You Can Do for Free (or Nearly Free)
Encourage them to keep a journal or help them start a blog.
Buy the script of their favorite movie or grab a play (and take turns "acting"). Or encourage them to write their own scripts and possibly film it themselves.
Bring back the pen pal -- either via snail mail or email.
Start a summer book club.
Introduce them to the Scholastic Story Starter, which offers prompts to get their creative writing juices flowing.


text:
The balloon has landed, outside of my vagina. Gone is the plastic-tube penis. Alas, no Butterfinger or Jolly Ranchers fell out of it. It did, however, hurt like heck to have it taken out. FYI, if you ever find yourself going in to have a balloon taken out of your Queen Victoria, please do not overlook, as I did, the doctor's instructions to take some sort of painkilling or mind-numbing medication in advance. Because it's very difficult to try to relax, as they tell you to do, when they're yanking something from your uterus.
Anyway, the appointment went surprisingly well, other than the mind-blowing discomfort part. The RE who assisted on the surgery spoke very highly of my uterus. She feels it looks great, with really no signs of previous bouts of scarring. She didn't see any reason not to proceed as planned. The conversation, dare I say, made me feel something unfamiliar, something warm and fuzzy...something like hope.
Before we go any further, I feel like I need to bring you up to speed on where I am with REs. I've had some interesting recent consults that must be reported on. It feels like choosing the right RE could have lifelong implications, so I need you to help me make sure I'm not making a colossal mistake.
Let's start back in my old town, before my move this summer. I've spoken many times before about my devotion to the RE who helped us get to H. I first saw her back in the summer of 2008, when the first RE in the practice wanted to cancel a cycle. The nurses whispered to me that I might want to see this other doctor who would have more patience with the "low and slow" protocol required for PCOS patients. I'm sure it was against the rules for them to suggest another doctor to me, and I'll be forever grateful for their breaking them.
This doctor got me right away. She not only knows the medicine -- what was needed to get me to actually ovulate so I could get the IUIs done -- but she instinctively gets the hand-holding part too. I needed a coach, almost a mentor. I needed someone to say you can do this, someone to walk me through the tough parts, someone who saw me and believed in my quest for motherhood. Maybe it's not reasonable to need that from a doctor, but the good news was I never had to ask for it from her. She told me when I was being crazy, she gave it to me straight. But she never made me feel stupid or belittled my feelings about an intensely emotional process. She said the words I needed to hear, the right words at the right time, the words that helped me push myself harder and get through more than I thought I could handle.
And she did what it took, she came up with the formula needed to get us to our H. For that, my gratitude is and always will be beyond the bounds of words.
After I found out the third post-H pregnancy (in November of last year) was another fail, I started to get itchy. My RE was standing by her sense that IVF wasn't the answer. I didn't know if she was right or wrong, but I wanted to try something else. If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result...I just needed to mix things up. I got two opinions.
One was perhaps the most bizarre meeting with a physician I'll ever experience, so that one is worthy of a separate post. But the other meeting was with an RE at a well-known center that's made many of my friends mothers. He said the right things. He thought he could help. He felt IVF might be the answer. We decided to try it, and we wanted to fit it in before our move. But I wanted closure with my longtime RE so I had her do the post-D&C look at the uterus. She pronounced it clear and was incredibly gracious about our moving on.
I started the Pill. It made me sick. I was stressed about the move, and the whole thing just didn't feel right. I stopped the Pill and decided to wait until after we moved.
Then we moved, I found out I was pregnant again (who knew I am now one of those women we hate, except for the minor point that all my easy-to-conceive fetuses have died), and things got a little more complicated. I had to find an OB in a completely new town and state to track the pregnancy. I had to trust her to do the in-office D&C and not scar me. I met with an RE, liked him well enough to have him to do the post-loss sonogram, and then decided when he found something awry -- the new fibroid in the cavity -- that I didn't feel comfortable enough with him (or, more specifically, his fertility center) to have him cut my uterus.
What I've realized is that I'm just more comfortable treating this process like it's a medical condition -- i.e. going to a doctor directly affiliated with a medical center, or more specifically, an academic medical center -- than a standalone clinic. There's something more "retail" about the latter, something that feels a little less grounded in science, even though I know the facts don't really back that feeling up. It's just my gut, and after everything I've been through I just think my gut deserves to be heard.
So I ended up at a center that has that hospital/university connection, and a team of doctors that I'm coming to trust. One just finished her fellowship at another well-known university-affiliated program, and while she's new to the specialty, I love her energy. She is the one who talked me down from the ledge before surgery the other day, and when she removed the balloon on Monday she inspired confidence by knowing exactly what she was talking about. It does give me pause to work with someone less experienced, so I'm meeting with a more experienced colleague of hers in the practice next week to come up with a plan. Together, they're beginning to feel like a team that truly might lead me to another baby.
I don't know when this fibroid came up. I don't know if it was there when my long-trusted RE scoped me in March, though I do know that my new doctor told me they didn't see it in the OR when they initially went in with the hysteroscope -- only when they used ultrasound did they find it. It sort of tells me that maybe it was there, and maybe her policy of using hysteroscopy versus saline sonogram may be flawed. But that fact, all the steps I took to get to this point, painful as many of them were, is starting to feel less important to me than the steps -- the possibility -- in front of me. I'm taking that as a good sign -- something I haven't seen in a while.
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
A Tale of All the REs
The balloon has landed, outside of my vagina. Gone is the plastic-tube penis. Alas, no Butterfinger or Jolly Ranchers fell out of it. It did, however, hurt like heck to have it taken out. FYI, if you ever find yourself going in to have a balloon taken out of your Queen Victoria, please do not overlook, as I did, the doctor's instructions to take some sort of painkilling or mind-numbing medication in advance. Because it's very difficult to try to relax, as they tell you to do, when they're yanking something from your uterus.
Posted by Good Egg Hatched at 8:00 AM 4 comments Links to this post
Sunday, September 8, 2013
New Methods of Vaginal Humiliation
I'm sick of feeling vulnerable.
I'm sick of laying down and putting my legs in stirrups and bracing myself for whatever they're going to find.
I'm so tired of being wheeled into yet another procedure, brought down the long, sterile hall, alone with the doctors and nurses, because it's my body that's broken and needs fixing, and no one else can go through the surgery for me.
I'm long over laying on the couch, losing another sunny day to feeling like shit, or bleeding too much, or crying the hormones out.
I don't want to worry anymore about heartbeats or complications. Can no longer handle being the 1% standard deviation patient.
I had the surgery, on Wednesday. They successfully removed my submucosal fibroid.
And now, having thought I'd suffered every humiliation possible in this quest for children, I learned but wait! There's more. There's something called a balloon catheter that they sometimes put in your uterus after something like a fibroid surgery. They blow it up with saline and shove it in there so the walls of the uterus won't touch and form scars. My witty friend S. suggested that perhaps they could put candy in it instead, so you could be a human piñata! That would only be mildly less humiliating.
Last night, the tube of this catheter fell out of my vagina, which they warned me may happen. So now? I have a long, plastic tube hanging from me. This feels nothing like the tampon string the doctors suggested it would feel like. They should really test these things out before they go making such declarations. What it feels like is a big, heavy piece of plastic hitting the inside of my thigh and shifting around every time I walk. I now know roughly what it would feel like to have a really skinny penis and it makes me sort of understand why guys are always adjusting themselves.
But back to the surgery. So I finally settled on a surgeon and center, though I still had reservations. It took me years to build enough trust with my old doctor to the point where I never questioned her, and surgery became if not comfortable, at least less panic-inducing for me. I'm still trying to process exactly what happened, but it seems like she missed the fibroid in the cavity when she scoped me in March, before the last pregnancy. That pregnancy was chromosomally normal. Did it land on the fibroid? Would I still be pregnant with a healthy boy if it had been caught? Was it indeed there, or did it surface during or after the pregnancy? I am asking questions about a doctor I adored and trusted wholeheartedly, and constructs of reality are being torn down. So I don't know exactly how to trust a doctor I really don't know at all.
I got my period last Friday, of course, the day we headed off with H for a much-needed mini vacation after a summer of moving and settling in. I called the office, scrambled in for blood work and the surgery was scheduled for Wednesday. And even after all I'd been through, every prior surgery that told me this one would be okay, I was terrified. We dropped H with a generous friend willing to watch him and then I was in my pre-op room, waiting.
I wanted my husband to do it for me. I wanted to run away. I wanted to pick up H and enjoy the sunshine at a park. They wheeled me in. I said I wasn't sure I could do it. They called in an anesthesiologist who "specializes in anxious patients." I asked the other guy if I scared him away. The row of doctors and nurses lined up at my bedside laughed. They gave me Versed, the edge was gone, and the last thing I remember is being told a random story about the anesthesiologist's first job.
When it was over, I couldn't wait to leave. I bounced up, relief overshadowing the need to move gingerly. I was standing in my friend's driveway talking about H's time with her when I felt the first gush.
I got home and assessed the damage. Lots of blood. Pad the heaviest I've ever seen, densely red. I called. They told me it's normal, it's probably less than I think, when you've been laying down a while it gushes out sometimes. You know what? I've been to this performance before. I know a pas de bourree from a pirouette. I know the difference between blood coming out and coming out in a way that almost hurts. They urged me to lay on the couch a while and see if it slowed. When I moved at one point and saw that my couch cushion looked like a b-grade horror film scene, we were back in the car on the way to the ER.
I sat on the toilet in the ER, giant clots coming out of me, and just thought I'm done. Worst-case scenarios whirled through my head. They tell you there's a risk of their piercing your uterus during surgery. Don't they say that because it happens sometimes?
That wasn't what happened to me. I was in a 1% complication bracket with the complication it was, but luckily it wasn't the kind of 1% that required more surgery or worse. It was a bleed at the site on my cervix where they put the tenaculum. Apparently bleeding at that site is common, but usually resolved at the end of surgery. Mine reopened and needed cauterization. Then I could finally go home to the couch, still dizzy from the meds. I slept on and off for two days straight. I felt like I'd had a run-in with a large truck. I'm still exhausted.
On Monday, the balloon catheter comes out. Then I meet with a doctor to determine an IVF plan.
I've known for approximately forever that I wanted kids. It's deeply part of the fabric of me, like feeling the first chill of autumn somewhere in my soul and loving Nora Ephron movies. I can't change that. I had a beautiful baby boy 3.5 years ago and it didn't cure me of wanting kids any more than winning the World Series makes a ball player pine for retirement. For some reason, the one thing I've wanted, more instinctively than anything else, is hard. Damn hard. Harder than anything I've ever done. And unexpectedly, despite all the time I've spent in this zone of fighting for it, I feel like I have fewer answers than ever about what it all means or where I'm supposed to go or how long I'm supposed to fight.
Posted by Good Egg Hatched at 8:26 AM 4 comments Links to this post


text: Gastro-esophageal reflux disease - commonly referred to as GERD, or acid reflux - is a condition in which the liquid content of the stomach regurgitates (backs up, or refluxes) into the esophagus. This liquid can inflame and damage the lining of the esophagus because it contains stomach acids and digestive enzymes. The symptoms include heartburn, regurgitation and nausea and the conventional treatment is medication which works to reduce the acid content of the stomach.


text: During a cerebral shunt procedure a flap is cut in the scalp and a small hole is drilled in the skull. A small catheter is passed into a ventricle of the brain. A pump (valve which controls flow of fluid) is attached to the catheter to keep the fluid away from the brain. The accumulation of excess fluid around the brain can cause an increase in intracranial pressure. The excess pressure can cause a decrease in blood flow to the brain leading to brain damage.


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Guides A-Z
This guide provides information about installing Insulating sheathing above the roof deck on existing homes. This retrofit assembly is appropriate for homes with conditioned attics or where the retrofit is intended to create a conditioned attic.
Guide describing how to properly test the air barrier between the garage and house, and how to ensure the air barrier is tight enough to prevent garage air from entering the home.
Guide describing how to insulate a basement to improve the overall thermal performance of the building and provide more dry, usable conditioned space for home occupants and for HVAC equipment.
Guide describing ways to air seal an attached garage in new and existing homes.
This guides describes how to insulate and air seal attic knee walls and floor joist cavities under knee walls.
Guide describing application of a radiant barrier layer in the attic to block radiant heat transfer between hot surfaces and heat-absorbing surfaces.
Guide describing how to air seal and insulate a cantilevered floor.
Guide describing how to air seal and insulate a ceiling.
Guide describing how to install continuous air barriers in exterior walls.
This guide describes air barrier and insulation installation, along with air sealing for double walls - half or full walls included in a home design as an architectural feature that provides a more dimensional appearance.
Guide describing how to insulate and air seal dropped ceilings and soffits to prevent air leakage.
Guide describing how to create an air barrier between the garage and the conditioned space above it to prohibit pollutants from entering a home's interior.
Guide describing how to air seal and insulate the floor above an unconditioned basement or crawl space.
Guide describing the air sealing of rim joists on walls connecting homes and attached garages.
Guide illustrating how to insulate a floor over unconditioned space with conditioned space above by adding insulation and air sealing.
Guide describing how to install an exhaust fan in an attached garage to pull fumes out of the garage and to depressurize the garage with reference to the home.
Guide describing how to insulate closed crawlspace walls and band joist areas with rigid foam board insulation.
Guide describing how to apply an air control layer directly over existing wall sheathing, and cover by two layers of insulating sheathing held in place by vertical furring strips.
Guide describing how to upgrade walls that separate the garage from the house by providing a continuous air control layer on the garage side of the wall and adding rigid foam insulation.
Guide describing insulation techniques for skylight shaft walls.
Guide describing how to create a fully aligned air barrier behind a staircase.
Guide describing how to install stucco over rigid foam insulaiton in new and existing homes.
Guide describing methods for insulating an unvented attic along the roof line.
Guide describing options for designing/locating the thermal boundary in new and existing homes.
Guide describing the design and installation considerations for recladding of above grade walls using insulated vinyl siding.
This guide describes how to install a rigid air barrier to separate the porch attic from the conditioned space.
This guide describes how to install a rigid air barrier to walls behind fireplaces.
This guide describes how to install a rigid air barrier to walls behind showers and tubs.
Guide describing an approach to re-roofing an existing flat roof to improve thermal, water, and air control performance.
Guide describing wind washing and how to prevent it.


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Apple May Start iPad 5 Production in July
We may see a brand new iPad in just a few months.
DigiTimes reports that production for the next-generation tablet will begin between July and August of this year. In addition to the production timeline, the site claims sources within the Taiwan-based supply chain for the tablet have indicated that the iPad 5 will be both thinner and lighter than its predecessor and will have a slimmer bezel, similar to that found on the iPad mini.
Purported images of the iPad 5 appeared on the web in January of this year. Those images showed a 9.7-inch iPad with an almost identical look to the iPad mini. The device had little to no right or left bezels, with the only area around the screen being that require for the camera and home button.
At the time, the iPad 5 was reported to be released in October on this year, a timeline that seems to fall in line with a July or August manufacturing schedule.
What do you hope to see from the iPad 5? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Photo courtesy of Flickr, JuditK


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Stay up to date on
Hawaiiantel.net. Breaking
celebrity news, up-to-the
minute sports info
and free games
make your new
customer portal a must see. Check it out now!
The Hawaiian Telcom company names and logos and all related product and service names, design marks and slogans are the trademarks or service marks of Hawaiian Telcom Holdco, Inc., or its subsidiaries or affiliates (collectively "Hawaiian Telcom"). You are not authorized to use any Hawaiian Telcom name or mark in any advertising, publicity or in any other commercial manner without the prior written consent of the appropriate Hawaiian Telcom entity. If you require more information on products and services controlled by tariffs details can be found here.


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Anything you catch in the sea is lawful for you, and all food from it, for your enjoyment and that of travellers… (Qur'an, 5:96)
But when they reached their meeting-place, they forgot their fish which quickly burrowed its way into the sea. When they had gone a distance further on, he said to his servant, "Bring us our morning meal. Truly this journey of ours has made us tired." He said, "Do you see what has happened? When we went to find shelter at the rock, I forgot the fish…" (Qur'an, 18:61-63)
Benefits against Inflammatory Disorders and Strengthening of the Immune System
At the same time, omega-3 fatty acids have an anti-inflammatory (infection preventing) function. Omega-3 can therefore be employed in the following diseases:
• Rheumatoid arthritis (joint infection linked to rheumatism),
• Osteoarthritis (a form of arthritis gradually degenerating the functions of joints)
• Ulcerative colitis (ulcers linked to the inflammation of the colon), and
• Lupus (a disease which causes patches on the skin).
It also protects myelin (the material surrounding nerve cells). It is therefore used in the treatment of
• Glaucoma (an eye disorder marked by abnormally high pressure within the eyeball that may even lead to blindness)
• Multiple sclerosis (a serious progressive disease resulting from tissue hardening in the brain and spinal cord),
• Osteoporosis (a disease leading to structural weakening in the bone structure)
• Diabetes patients.
In addition, it is also reported to be useful in the treatment of
• Migraine patients,
• Anorexia (a possibly fatal eating disorder)
• Burns
• Problems concerning skin health.
There is also wide-ranging evidence that societies such as the Greenland Eskimos and Japanese, who eat a lot of fish, rich in omega-3 fatty acid, have a much lower incidence of heart and artery disease, asthma and psoriasis. Fish is therefore recommended as a form of treatment and is particularly recommended by nutritionists on account of its proven benefits for coronary health.
Additional benefits to those outlined above are emerging every day. Moreover, it has only been possible to reveal the health benefits of fish by a great many scientists working in well-equipped research laboratories. The fact that such a valuable source of nutrition is indicated in the Qur'an, and especially that it is described as a fatigue eliminator in Surat al-Kahf, is nothing short of awe-inspiring. All the benefits provided by fish are a great blessing given us by our Lord. As with all foods, it is Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, Who has created the superior structure in fish for our benefit.
"To purchase the works of Harun Yahya, please visit www.bookglobal.net."


text: 475800630_ea4594ccae_b Share this:PinterestMoreEmailPrintTwitterFacebookLinkedInLike this:Like Loading... Published by Pam Ford Davis Wife of over fifty years. Mother of two adult children, 7 grandsons & 2 great-granddaughters. Have worked in both radio & television (on air & behind the scenes). God opened the door to a writing ministry in 2009. I 'Wing His Words.' View all posts by Pam Ford Davis


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SANDY, Utah (Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2012) – Just a few days removed from Saturday's important 1-0 victory over D.C. United, Real Salt Lake (14-10-4, 46 points, West #2) gets back into it on Thursday, Sept. 6, when the Claret-and-Cobalt will take on the Houston Dynamo (11-7-9, 42 points, East #4)at BBVA Compass Stadium at 6:30 p.m. MT. The match will be broadcast live on CW30/ESPN700 and on Juan 1600 AM/La Gran D 102.3 FM.
RSL – which is currently riding three-game unbeaten and shutout streaks – has never won in Texas, posting a 0-17-3 mark across all competitions in the Lone Star State, including a 0-7-1 mark in Houston. Thursday's game will be the Claret-and-Cobalt's first-ever match at BBVA Compass Stadium, Houston's gorgeous new stadium that opened in early-May.
If Real Salt Lake is to pick-up its first win in the heat and humidity of South Texas, it will have to do so without a trio of important players. Captain Kyle Beckerman (U.S.), leading scorer Álvaro Saborío (Costa Rica) and MF Will Johnson (Canada) all departed Salt Lake on Sunday to play in World Cup Qualifiers with their respective national teams and will miss Thursday's game. Though he was called up to the U.S. national side, GK Nick Rimando will be available in Houston, joining the American team in Columbus following Thursday's match.
Thursday's matchup is the first –and only – time RSL will meet the Dynamo in the 2012 regular season. Houston has been struggling a bit lately, going winless in their last three games across all competitions, including a 3-1 loss at Chicago on Sunday. The Dynamo last won a MLS game over a month ago, beating New York 2-0 way back on Aug. 3, a span of four league games. It's worth noting that Houston has won a CONCACAF Champions League game since then, beating Salvadoran club C.D. FAS 3-1 on the road on Aug. 22.
Like RSL, the Dynamo will also be without several key players on Thursday due to international duty. Designated Player Boniek Garcia (Honduras), regular DF's Andre Hainault (Canada) and Jermaine Taylor (Jamaica) as well as part-time starting MF Je-Vaughn Watson (Jamaica) will all be with their national teams and will miss Thursday's match.
Real Salt Lake will go on an extended break following the Houston match, likely getting a few days off before resuming training ahead of the club's next game, a Sept. 18 CONCACAF Champions League Group 2 encounter at Panamanian club Tauro FC.
How to Follow Real Salt Lake at Houston Dynamo
- Kickoff: 6:30 p.m. MT at BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston, Texas
- TV: CW30 with Glenn Davis and Brian Dunseth
- English Radio: ESPN700/ESPN700Sports.com (pre-game coverage begins at 5:30 p.m. MT)
- Spanish Radio: La Gran D 102.3 FM & Juan 1600 AM with Nelson Moran & Fernando Hortal
- Online: The @RealSaltLake Twitter Feed will provide match updates
Game Guide for Friday's RSL-Houston Dynamo Match Now Available Online
Following is the link to the Adobe PDF version of the Game Guide (media notes) in advance of Thursday's contest between Real Salt Lake and the Houston Dynamo. If you have any problems obtaining the document, would prefer to receive it as an attachment, or are seeking more information on the match, please contact Media Services Manager Sam Stejskal in the RSL Communications Department via email at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Click here to download the PDF version of the RSL-Houston MLS Game Guide
RSL History v. Houston
Thursday's game will be the 17th all-time league meeting between Houston and RSL. The Dynamo has dominated the series, with RSL posting a measly 3-8-5 MLS record against Houston.
RSL struggled against Houston in 2011, tying them 0-0 at Rio Tinto Stadium on May 14 and giving up a 90th minute goal to fall 3-2 on the road on Aug. 20.
www.RealSaltLake.com / www.RioTintoStadium.com / www.ESPN700Sports.com


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Corning Optical Communications LLC, part of Corning Incorporated's (NYSE:GLW) Telecommunications segment, introduces the Sealed Remote Radio Distribution Terminal (SRRDT) for tower and rooftop wireless applications. The rugged IP68-rated housing keeps out moisture and dust, combines electrical and optical management into a single housing and reduces installation time.
The SRRDT can be configured for optical-only applications, optical and surge protection, or with an optical and electrical connection. LC duplex connectors inside the housing provide optical connectivity between vertical cable assemblies and remote radio fiber optic cable assemblies (RRCA). The SRRDT has a 36-fiber capacity, enough to provide up to 18 radios two fibers each for optical support.
Surge protectors help minimize outages due to lightning strikes and power surges, and up to six remote radios can be supported. Low-cost terminal blocks are available for applications not requiring surge protection.
To learn more about the Sealed Remote Radio Distribution Terminal for wireless applications, visit Corning Optical Communications' exhibit (booth #5208) at CTIA Wireless®, May 8-10, in New Orleans.
For additional information on Corning Optical Communications products and services, contact a customer service representative at 1-800-743-2675, toll free in the United States, or (+1) 828-901-5000, international, or visit the website at www.corning.com/opcomm.
About Corning Incorporated
Corning Incorporated (www.corning.com) is the world leader in specialty glass and ceramics. Drawing on more than 160 years of materials science and process engineering knowledge, Corning creates and makes keystone components that enable high-technology systems for consumer electronics, mobile emissions control, telecommunications and life sciences. Our products include glass substrates for LCD televisions, computer monitors and laptops; ceramic substrates and filters for mobile emission control systems; optical fiber, cable, hardware & equipment for telecommunications networks; optical biosensors for drug discovery; and other advanced optics and specialty glass solutions for a number of industries including semiconductor, aerospace, defense, astronomy and metrology.


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A few people (like me!) are new to camping in the snow and have some questions and concerns about what to bring and do when camping in snow, so I thought I'd start a thread asking the experts out there for some practical advice.
I'll start with a quote from another website:
"Always use a pad under your sleeping bag in the winter. Many people suggest two pads. Insulating yourself from the ground is more important than insulating yourself from the cold air."
I've heard it is not a good idea to use an air mattress because the air inside free to move and actually conducts heat away from the body rather than insulate it.